Movie Review and a Little Guilt

Tonight I took Josh and Hannah to see the new Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog." Since I became a mom I have started being a little more sensitive to Disney movies. They make dreamy, wishful princess movies but they always have to add some scary "bad guy" that works some kind of magic against said princess. It really didn't bother me as a kid. But I am pretty sure I didn't see any of those princess movies until I was older, like late elementary school through high school.

Well, they have taken the whole bad guy, magic business a little farther in "The Princess and the Frog." The movie is set in New Orleans so they incorporated A LOT of voodoo, evil spirits and even an actual voodoo doll. There are evil shadows that drag a man off into "hell." Remember that scene in the movie "Ghost," starring Patrick Swayze, when he kills the bad guy at the end of the movie and all the shadows come out and drag him away while making scary, evil sounding screeching noises? Well, it was like they took that scene right out of "Ghost" and put it in a rated G kid's movie.

The movie had a lot of good points like it is OK to wish on a star, but you still have to work hard to accomplish your dreams and that love is important and self sacrifice to help out those you love. The music was fun in a Mardi Gras kind of way. But the evil that was portrayed in this movie far out weighed the good.

I should have just left. I kept asking Josh and Hannah if they were OK and they would say yes, so I stuck it out. It wasn't a horrible movie, it was actually mostly cute and funny. But when we were walking out to the car Josh asked my why I took him to see it because it scared him. And then when we got home he told me I wasn't his special mom anymore because I took him to see that scary movie. Talk about feeling like CRAP! He said that those are the kind of movies that make him have bad dreams. And, darn it, I have been feeling kind of iffy about letting them watch all the popular Disney movies, but I let it go. Now I know the truth, it was a bad idea! Very bad mom moment tonight.

What happened tonight did open up a door for some good discussion with the kids. I explained to them that magic wasn't real. "People don't really turn into frogs, do they?" So shadows can't really come up and take you away either. I also explained that we ALWAYS have God watching over us and if we are ever scared we can pray to Him and ask Him to help us not be afraid. I also prayed over both of them that God would put a hedge of protection over them as they sleep so that they won't have any bad dreams. I pray that these are the things that they will take away from tonight and no all the scary voodoo junk from the movie.

I am writing this mostly because I need to get my feelings out so I don't put my head down and cry because I feel like if an award was given tonight for the worst mom of the day award it would be given to me. I am not a movie reviewer by any means, but I do see movies and have an opinion about them and mine for "The Princess and the Frog" is that it is just too scary and some what evil for little kids to see, even with all the cuteness in it. I think we will just stick with Veggie Tales and the sweetest cartoon to come along in a long time, "Up." A great place to get good, Christian movie reviews is www.pluggedin.com. They are good about giving a pretty thorough rundown of the content of the movie from a Christian view point. Kids are innocent and I think it is OK to let them be when they are so young.